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What Are Treatments for Plantar Warts and Palmer Warts?

Plantar warts and palmer warts will often eventually go away without treatment. If they bother you, however, you can treat common skin warts in a variety of ways.

Duct tape is one home remedy. Put a small strip over the wart and leave it on for six days. Then, remove the tape, soak the wart in water, and then gently debride it with a pumice stone or emory board. Repeat the process many times until the wart is gone. This may take a couple of months. Don’t expect miracles with this type ot treatment since it probably does not work any better than a placebo.

Over-the-counter wart treatments work about 50% of the time. These wart removers usually work by peeling the wart.

Doctor's treatments include freezing the wart off with liquid nitrogen, removing the wart with laser or surgery, or applying or injecting medicines to strengthen the immune system so it can clear your body of the virus.

Treatment, however, is not fast and easy. Home treatment for hand warts, for instance, can take a few weeks up to a few months. Foot warts are challenging to treat because most of the wart lies below the skin surface.

Even if a treatment is successful, the wart can reappear.

If a wart is not bothersome, doctors say it can be left alone. Given time, the wart may disappear on its own, thanks to the immune system.

Nanette Silverberg, MD, director of pediatric and adolescent dermatology, St. Luke's--Roosevelt Hospital, and assistant professor of clinical dermatology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, N.Y.